How do you commission glassblown art?
We’ve all seen a piece of art – or imagined one – that would look spectacular in our homes, gardens or offices.
But how do you go about achieving the vision?
In short, with an open mind.
Working with glass is one of the most fluid art forms. Both figuratively and literally.
Gordon Studio Glassblowers hand-makes imperfect glass art. And we pride ourselves upon that. No two pieces we have made – or will make – will ever be the same. Investing in our art means you have something truly unique.
Therefore, we cannot create a piece of art that will ever look exactly the way someone – including ourselves – thinks it will. And we believe that is to be celebrated.
We love the challenge of commissions, whether the brief arrives in the form of a conversation, an email or a hand-drawn sketch, but we want people to understand that this is art, not manufacturing.
We physically cannot recreate a piece that has broken – or that somebody finds – to make it look exactly the same. And to be honest; we don’t really want to. Our entire love and energy on one particular day is put into blowing, and we’re all fortunate in this world that no two days are exactly the same.
A million different factors can influence the outcome of a piece; many within our control and many more not with our control. We’ve practised glassblowing for lifetimes, and inherited our love for the artform from parents who practised for lifetimes. But in art, practise does not make perfect. And we won’t apologise or make any excuses for that. Quite the opposite; we embrace the imperfect.
In the realm of art – and certainly glassblowing – ‘perfect’ is completely subjective. Even Grant and Eileen don’t agree on how they see a piece. Imagine if they did! Imagine if anyone saw something in exactly the same way someone else does. Doesn’t sound like much fun. And glassblowing is fun. It’s seeing the nuances and how they look different in every light.
Art is fun. It’s so much fun to look at the same thing and share opinions. In the same way that no-one interprets a book, a painting, a building or a dance in exactly the same way others do, glass is to be enjoyed in a million different ways.
Unlike production glassblowers (that create glass for our friends at IKEA and alike), Gordon Studio Glassblowers don’t stick to four-hour shifts; we blow until the art is complete – or in the case of larger sculptures – until a section that will fit in the annealing kiln is complete, working in challenging conditions.
Once you’ve fired up the furnace and you’re investing thousands of dollars just to feed it for a day, you have a window to create art. We can't just walk away and come back when conditions are friendlier. We have to commit to tangible outcomes before we start.
Our colour palette is not the same as a painter, or a graphic designer; the colours come from Germany as solid glass bars which need preheating or we crush them up as chips or ground powder. We usually add the colour to our clear glass very early in the journey, but the hot glass always looks orange due to the heat. The true colour of a piece is not seen until the following morning when cool.
It’s a challenging concept to understand, and we invite everyone to watch and try glassblowing to try and understand what it feels like to have molten glass on the end of a punty.
We are transferring energy – heat and human movement – to a live medium. Molten glass has its own energy; cooling and moving to its own beat. When Grant creates a coolamon platter, it has its own forces; spreading to imperfect width, length and colour dynamic. We don’t want to constrain conditions; that would be boring. And the art would not dance in the way Gordon Studio glass does.